I don’t know about you, but I’m seeing a trend in marketing that I personally don’t like, and think can be very dangerous.
More and more I see marketers who are using what I call “in your face marketing”. Tell me if you’ve noticed this:
1. Bragging (especially about how much money they’ve earned)
I very rarely talk about how much money I’ve earned. I would much rather share the results I’ve helped others achieve. That’s the power of case studies and testimonials. Even if you’re brand new, you can use case studies of people you’ve helped for free.
Now, this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share your own personal story. Your personal story is extremely powerful. So if you’re a relationship coach who helps singles their their true love, share your story of how you struggled with that and how you overcame it. People want to know that you can relate to their challenges.
2. Giving the impression of being untouchable
I understand that as your business grows, you need to build a team to help you manage your time and business. I couldn’t function without my team. But this is more about purposefully creating an aura of being untouchable so as to create the impression of success.
But here’s the thing. You can still be accessible and maintain a personal connection with the people in your community. Answer your emails, reply to social media posts and blog comments. And above all, recognize that we’re all in this together. It’s about creating an inclusive – not an exclusive – atmosphere of success. One of my greatest points of pride is the community I’ve created in my groups – people go all out in supporting one another. So as your business grows, remember the importance of keeping that personal touch and of creating a real sense of community.
3. Using vulgarity to get attention
Using potty mouth for the sake of grabbing attention is, in my opinion, pure shock value and a cheap shot. I’m not trying to be a prude about it. Trust me, I can swear in private – you should see me when I’m driving. But I don’t think swearing and roughness belong in your marketing.
I’m a very direct person. I tell it like it is. And I bring that quality to not just my marketing, but to my work with my clients. And I’ll generally ask my clients if it’s okay to be really straight with them. So you can be direct and bold without resorting to potty mouth.
4. Being controversial for the sake of being controversial
There’s a difference between taking a stand for something you genuinely believe in and being controversial. Can you think of any respected, successful company that pursues a prolonged dispute as a marketing strategy? Of course not. Most brands are not built on a negative emotion. Controversy might create a short term uptick in attention, but studies show that positive, uplifting content gets more views and clicks over time. Most importantly though, using controversy as a strategy causes you to feel and be viewed as a character instead of an authentic person.
If your approach is designed to be offensive then you will alienate and discourage people from aligning and working with you. But if you are challenging the status quo because you think you have a better way and take a civil approach, that’s a different story.
You want to take a stand with your marketing. But you should be attracting attention for your beliefs. That’s how you attract your ideal clients – the ones who really get you and what you’re all about.
The bottom line is that marketing shouldn’t be in your face, because it reflects who you are as a person and a business. Marketing isn’t about yelling your message, it’s about sharing your message. It’s about coming from a place of service and connecting with real people with the intention of helping them.
Come from a place of sharing who you really are. Of knowing what’s unique and wonderful about you. Of taking a stand because you really believe in it. And of helping others, rather than trying to shock them. When you do that, and you do it in a sincere way, good things will happen for you.
I recently did a training call on this topic, just for my members of my valued community. You can listen in here. I do these free VIP training and coaching calls every month. If you want a heads up on the next one, be sure you’re on my mailing list).
Please share your questions and comments below. Thank you!!
Hello. I very much enjoyed this article. I found you from a podcast you did with Mark Sumpter.
A few comments:
1a. Bragging about their income. I think, for me, I kind of need that hope. I am seriously considering a career in coaching and one concern is that I won’t be able to make a dime, let alone pay the bills. However, I am suspicious whenever someone tells me how much they earn even in the promise of transparency.
1b. I think my passion may lie in some form of career coaching. However, I have not been very successful with the careers I’ve had (because of a lack of passion perhaps). So I haven’t overcome that obstacle. Who would hire a career coach who has/is not successful in his careers? But how does one become successful in careers he isn’t passionate about? Kind of a catch-22 for someone whose passion and strengths would tend to favor a career in career coaching.
2. Being untouchable almost skirts the same logic surrounding the “I don’t want to join a group that would have me as a member”. For some, if the person is accessible then they are probably not in high demand. That is perhaps the perception. I, sadly, fall into that belief, if I am being honest with myself. I think one way around that perception may be to market the idea that the coach has made enough money that he no longer worries about it and so he can promote his very real agenda of being of service to more people 1:1.
3. I really dislike vulgarity, especially for attention’s sake. At first, I guess many people thought it made the user sound genuine when he cursed. I think there is still a segment of the population that still finds it appealing. I, personally, am more tired of the words “power”, “key”, “secret”, “ultimate” and all the other power words and phrases. But its because the threshold for me has overflowed but most people probably still eat it up.
4. As someone just coming into coaching thinking he may make a couple hundred dollars a month working 80 hour weeks only to quit 3 to 5 heartbreaking years later, I have to say that any traffic is enticing, controversial or otherwise.
I think what attracted me to your work is the apparent integrity and awareness of your message. I think you may work at a “higher” level than most people. Perhaps you are limiting your audience but then do you really want to work with someone who thinks you have integrity because you curse a lot?
Once a yoga teacher came to me for marketing advice. Unfortunately, everything I suggested wouldn’t work for her because she didn’t want anyone to think she was marketing herself. Anything was too loud for her. I told her that even most churches ring a bell every Sunday.
Thank you,
Tom
Tom,
What an incredibly well thought out and insightful comment. Thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts. There is so much in there I would love to discuss and just may have to do a Community Call so we can give thoughtful discussion to some of these topics. One immediate thought is with regard to the first point. I think it’s much more powerful to discuss the results you’ve helped your clients create vs. the money you’ve earned. As for the second point, I can absolutely see your point about the perception of access and there are definitely layers to accessibility. It makes good sense to reserve the highest level of accessibility to your private clients, but there are ways to still provide levels of access to people in your programs and community.
I love the story about the yoga teacher. I wish you all the best with your coaching business Tom and if I can be of any help to you as you move forward, do let me know.
warm wishes,
Cindy
Thank you for the kind reply. If I do decide to move forward with coaching I am sure I will need all the help I can get.
Thanks again,
Tom